1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates generally to electronic musical instruments and more particularly to electronic musical instruments operating within the musical instrument digital interface (“MIDI”) protocol which incorporate at least one keyboard having push buttons arranged in a three-dimensional array. Additionally, the present general inventive concept relates to computer software to help users learn to play the musical instrument according to the present general inventive concept.
2. Description of the Invention
Conventional keyboards for piano, accordion, organ and other musical instruments are made having an interface with discrete divisions capable of being individually actuated by human fingers. A standard piano keyboard has a generally linear arrangement with the tones arranged in a chromatic musical scale ascending from left to right.
This arrangement is similar on a piano accordion, with the keyboard tilted vertically and played with a user's right hand only. On the piano accordion, the user's left hand plays push buttons that are in a two dimensional array rather than in a simple linear arrangement. On other accordions, the linear, piano keyboard is abandoned altogether and there is a two dimensional arrangement of push buttons for either hand to play.
A compact, equal interval keyboard of the present general inventive concept offers considerable improvement over conventional keyboards. It is remarkably compact in that all of the notes of the chromatic scale are presented to the player on push buttons in an exceptionally efficient arrangement. The spacing is similar to that in a computer keyboard, except that all of the push buttons are arranged in straight columns as well as straight rows, that is, in a checkerboard pattern. It is like the nine equally sized and equally spaced push buttons of the numeral entry keypad that the larger computer keyboards have, expanded to cover the whole keyboard area.
On this keyboard, a typical adult's hand can comfortably span three octaves. On a standard piano, a comfortable span is only one octave, and even on a reduced size keyboard of a piano accordion, the span is only about an octave and a half.
The tonal relationship of the push buttons on this keyboard offers an important opportunity to develop advanced musical instruments. From left to right, the push buttons are arranged in an ascending chromatic scale. Going from row to row, out from the player's body, each push button is a musical perfect fourth above the preceding push button. This is similar to the tonal arrangement on a bass guitar, if the guitar were flat on a table in front of the player, with the tuning pegs to the left and the body of the guitar to the right.
To play this keyboard, the five fingers of the hand naturally rest upon five adjacent push buttons in a row. They are positioned to play the first five notes of a chromatic scale. If, for instance, the user's thumb of the right hand were on “C,” then the index finger would be on “C#,” the middle finger on “D,” the ring finger on “D#” and the pinky on “E.” The next note to be played in the chromatic progression is “F,” but with the this keyboard it is unnecessary to move one's hand sideways out of position in order to play “F.” The arrangement of push buttons allows the thumb to play “F” simply by lifting the thumb off of the “C” push button and moving it straight up to the “F” push button in the next row, and so on.
Thus, in this geometric arrangement, most of the movement of the player's hands is directly out and back from the front of his body, rather than laterally as in a conventional piano keyboard. With a keyboard more than five columns wide, the user's hand is still free to move laterally, which is particularly advantageous in playing chords and changing keys. However, in most melody playing situations, the hand settles into a very simple pattern where each finger need only play the notes in its one column. There is very little crossing-over of fingers, jumping about or reaching to be concerned with. The task of planning how to finger complicated runs of notes is practically eliminated.
The symmetrical, equal interval pattern of the push buttons on this keyboard affords an advancement not achieved in virtually any other musical instrument. In moving from one note to another, the physical relationship between the two notes always exactly matches the musical relationship.
All of the musical relationships between any two notes on the chromatic scale have been given a label. For instance, the musical relationship between “C” and “E” is called a major third. It is played on the piano with the two white notes “C” and “E”. If one were to maintain the same spanned distance with two fingers on a hand and move up the keyboard to the next white notes, one would be playing “D” and “F”. This is not a major third, but a minor third. There is one less half-step between “D” and “F” than there is between “C” and “E.” If one would want to maintain the same musical interval while moving the lower finger from “C” to “D,” the upper finger would have to move from “E” to “F#”, not only a change in span between the two fingers, but also a change in direction. Similar unsymmetrical arrangements on many other conventional musical instruments make playing music unnecessarily complex.
On this keyboard, for any musical interval one may choose, the two notes in the interval, beginning on any note of the chromatic scale, are always exactly the same physical distance apart for that interval and in the same direction. Basically, what one hears musically is matched by what physical movements the user is required to make in order to play.
Once one learns how to play a musical interval, it does not change. There is no need to learn other physical arrangements if one starts from different notes. One result of this is if one learns a song in one key, one can play it in any other key with exactly the same fingering by merely shifting the hand to start on a different note. There is no need to learn different fingering directions and distances for each key.
The second result is that specified chords are fingered exactly the same way in any key, that is, a “C” major chord is fingered exactly the same as an “F#” major chord. One merely shifts the hand and starts it on a different note.
Once a musician acquaints himself with the pattern of notes on this keyboard, playing a musical piece is almost as easy as singing a melody that one hears in one's head. Improvization is simplified.
An important requirement to have a viable professional musical instrument based upon this keyboard is to have a separable keyboard for each hand. In trying to position the hands to play on a single keyboard of this form, not only do the hands interfere with one another but neither hand is ergonomically situated relative to the keyboard for ease of play.
Although the keyboard proposed in the present inventive concept could be incorporated into non-MIDI enabled musical instruments, the addition of elements from the MIDI protocol immensely expands the capabilities of the keyboard and provides opportunity for an interactive computer tutorial that greatly simplifies the learning of music on the keyboard.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a MIDI controller in the form of compact, equal interval musical keyboards which optimize the capabilities of the musical instrument by allowing musicians to use both hands and all fingers, unencumbered.